The second account, during questioning, seemed to state that after unlocking, the feathering was (immediately?) activated, and two seconds later, all communication got lost, due to catastrophic failure.
Which of the accounts is the correct one?
I think the NTSB report was fairly categoric that the system was unlocked but the deployment handle was not used.
But here is what is confusing me. We are told the feathering is for re-entry deceleration and never used at this stage in flight. Yet we already know about tail stalls in earlier test flights...
Virgin's SpaceShipTwo Stalls During Test Flight
Upon release, the Spaceship experienced a downward pitch rate that caused a stall of the tails. The crew followed procedure, selecting the feather mode to revert to a benign condition. The crew then defeathered and had a nominal return to base. Great flying by the team and good demo of feather system.
So we have some suggestion here that the feathering could be legitimately deployed at this early stage.